The Spirit Hunt
by Knight.of.The.North
Summary: My first story. Red's life takes two dramatic twists that may lead him to lose the two things in his heart that keep him alive. Disclaimer: Nothing here belongs to me. All of it is property of Square Enix. Chapter 3 up.
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Spirit Hunt

A.N: This is my first story. It centres mainly around Red and an incident at Cosmo Canyon, following soon by him returning to Midgar.

Red XIII looked up at the engulfing sky, his firey tail breezing in the soft draughts of Cosmo Canyon. Ah, the Wolf-like beast loved this feeling more then anything in the world. The only thing that interrupted this was his own thoughts.

But today, he had finally lost the one tentative link back to the times before his capture, before the Gi attacked. Grandfather had died. Quietly and peacefully, the old man had simply not woken up. But it had hit Red as badly if he had convulsed and died right infront of his eyes.

He looked up. It was here. The Grand Airship, the Shera, hovered overhead. Cid had put more work into that ship that even Red could comprehend. He had occasionally helped out, looking over designs and welding with his tail. In the 9 months since the Stigma-Incident, he had not boarded it once. Bugenhagen had hung on for nearly 3 years. For that, Red could not help but love that kind, old man all the more. That crisp smile, the cheerful laughter, the uncanny ability to float anywhere he wished, and most of all- the spirit. Red was never going to meet such a genuinely kind soul in his life, no matter how long it lasted. Nanaki had never cried before. As the tiny little shards of glistening water fell down from his eye, he shook his head and main, realising he had been daydreaming. Cid and Shera had landed and were now staring at him, pity plain in their eyes.

"Hello Cid." Red looked up, cautiously.

Shera, although she barely knew Red, knelt down and drew him into a tight embrace. The beautiful woman had finally convinced the pilot into wearing a suit, in correlation with the funeral. Albeit a very rough and ragged one. Shera herself had kindly placed on a simply black dress.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She tried to comfort Red. It wasn't working.

Then he noticed the others coming. He had thought they couldn't make it, and so had only invited Cid due to the fact he had landed nearby, in Rocket Town.

Red looked up at Cid.

"Thank you."

Cid shed a tear for his friend, the Wolf-creature that had slowly grown to become a friend and guide to him.

"Ain't nothin', Red. Least I could do."

Cloud and Tifa, shining engagement rings shining on their fingers. Both had adorned themselves in similiar fashion to Cid and Shera, with Cloud ditching the jacket in favour of a solemn black tie. Tifa wore a black dress slightly similiar to Shera's, but that covered her body from head to toe. Cloud looked at Red. They both knew that no words need be said, as Cloud strode up, nodding at the Highwinds, and gave Red a touching hug, kneeling down. Tifa, however, was barely holding her tears in check.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry, Red. I know he meant the world to you, and he meant alot to all of us aswell." The brunette dapped her eyes with a white cloth.

"Grandfather would have been frustrated at so many people being here instead of living their lives." Red said, a half-snarl upon his face, that disapeared as quickly as it came.

"But he would be truly flattered."

Barret and Elmyra were next, with Yuffie and Vincent close behind. They were all similiarly attired, and gave very much the same comforts

"Tha' old guy really was somethin, won't he?" Was Barret's most prominent comment as he tried to stop crying, Elmyra patting his arm.

Marlene and Denzel were already at Cosmo Canyon - Red and Bugenhagen had been asked by Cloud, Tifa and Barret to do a little astronomy teaching for them, aswell as telling them about how important the planet was and the basics of the Lifestream. They had been there for 2 months- both cried just as much as Red would have liked too. Grandfather had always been a very loveable man.

Yuffie and Vincent bowed in deference, an old Wutaian custom. Yuffie wored a black silk kimono, with Vincent dressed in a dark red suit that, as always it seemed, made him look incredibly depressed.

They all scrambled up the steps to the Canyon, and gathered round the fireplace where they had all, excluding Vincent and Cid + Shera, once sat. In the place of the legendary bonfire was raised a funeral pyre. Bugenhagen always speculated what would happen if his body was cremated, commonly going as as to chop off half a finger or two and incinerating it. But he admitted that he could not test it properly - it required him to be dead.

And (as the readers have almost certainly guessed) atop the pyre was the body of the old man. He had died dreaming happily, and so the remnants of a smile was locked onto his face. Red looked away hurriedly trying to hide his grief. Cid and Barret placed their hand on his heavy shoulders.

He physically steeled himself. He looked up, remembering how his father and his mother were watching, and spoke.

"Thank you. Thank you for coming. As you all know, Bugenhagen was the man who raised me, from 24, to 46. To you that sounds like much, but to me, it is far more. He taught me how I must honour the planet, myself, and my friends. He was the man who instilled the stories of my mother and, eventually my father, into me. He was the man who sent us down our path to save the planet. He always said that his time on our workd would end by the tip of my tail. To that point, I honour his last wish." With these words, and a dozen tears almost idlely tipping down his face and many others, mostly Barret's, Tifa's, Yuffie's and Shera's, he tipped his tail to the pyre. It almost instantly fell into flame. The coloured sparks that flew up from Grandfather's body were an homage to the debt the planet owed this man. Red's only hope was that Bugenhagen would one day meet the Cetra, and drill them forever with his questions.

Without Bugenhagen, Nanaki had very little to do. Denzel and Marlene had gone with Barret and Elmyra back to Edge, and the inhabitants of Cosmo Canyon could only offer so many things to do. After having a quick hunt around the crags of his beloved landscape, he found something staring at him from the darkness...


	2. Chapter 2: Shattered Stone

This part of the canyon was simple. Sprawling rock shelves soared upwards. It was steeped in fallen rocks and boulders. A few days rain had pooled and stagnated in pools at the bottom. It was grimy, crusty and baked red, but it retained the sense of peace that the area around Cosmo Canyon always had. Tranquillity mixed with the subtle tinge of filth, yet the filth is meaningless, as it is natural filth. Even 2 months after Bugenhagen's funeral, Red still managed to throw the kind man from his mind and focus.

But something disturbed it, in the far end of the crag. It was a far shadow. Far shadows meant a creature. But Red was naturally suspicious. He wasn't alive because he waltzed straight into danger, he was alive because he was careful and decisive at the same time.

Red took 9 quick steps forward. This brought him a quarter way into the crag. He could scent a few desert frogs to his left. He could smell the canyon winds soaring overhead.

He was perfectly balanced on the rocks. He was drawn back into a battle crouch. He was as brilliantly poised as a warrior, superiorly set as a beast.

Nothing stopped him as he took 20 paces, before leaping off an uplifted jut of rock towards the shadow. He was a flash of fire, the dagger that strikes unseen before tearing apart your insides.

But not even he, a beast born to fight, could realise what he was leaping into. He was in mid-air when he saw it. He fell, as it struck him hard across the head, shattering his consciousness. The Tiger-Wolf descended into sleep. The creature growled, before hooking it's head under Red's body, and dragging him towards both of their former homes. It almost idlely whispered into Red's ear.

"I'll meet you at Midgar."

He awoke at the bottom of the steps of Cosmo Canyon. He looked up. Nothing was different from years before. But somehow, it seemed different now. He looked towards the Cave of the Gi with the look of a haunted man, fear plain as day upon his face. He sprinted the steps like a being scared not for his body, but for his soul. Elder Sirenwind looked up from his seat, carving a subtle image of Red for his son.

"What seems to be the matter, Young Nanaki?" The old, tanned man said.

He was, like most elders, fit, lean and healthy. But his age was beginning to tell from the lines on his face and dozens of tiny little scars across his wrinkled hands, as his role of carpenter didn't always end without a cut or two. His silver hair fell around him like snow in a blizzard, and it created an illusion of light that reflected the man's personality.

But the Young Wolf had no time for the kindness of the man. He fled upwards, towards the Cave of the Gi. He dodged around the inhabitants like a wind, not much could have stopped the ragged red blur anyway.

He leapt the ledges lithely and magnificently. Had you seen him, you would have recognised what it is to be a member of his race, and be poised on a single thing.

The Cave was covered in several decaying bodies, mostly bones, from his first trip down here, aswell as some others. He regularly fled down here to keep it clear. But also to think, and look up at his father, Seto. It was a weekly routine that was all that kept him true to himself now that Bugenhagen had died. But Nanaki hoped for one thing, by The Planet, he hoped his encounter had been a dream.

As he passed through the chamber where he and Avalanche had fought Gi Nittak, he looked up at the shining sky. It was beautiful, almost beyond belief. Each star shone like the core of a diamond, the eye of a dragon. It was like looking up at confirmation of all Red protected. But there was one thing missing atop the beautiful crags, something that dragged Red's fragile heart out of his chest and threw it to the wind, discarding all he had relied on in these 3 years past. Throwing away his rock.

Seto no longer stood guard over Cosmo Canyon.

Red sat stubbornly at the prow of the Shera, an unfading statue. He was like his father had been for so many years. Steely, sharp and proud. Cid couldn't understand him. Why would he need to suddenly travel to Midgar, and at such short notice? Red had literally arrived in Rocket Town and asked, no- demanded, to be flown to Midgar. Red had been angry and snappy, instead of the calm and cool Wolf that had been at Bugenhagen's Funeral. It was absolute proof that something very bad had happened. Shera had tried to give him food, but as she walked back she saw the same food flying behind them. The woman had almost gone back and given him a rather unpleasant piece of her mind, but the sight of those deep, engulfing emerald eyes, tinged with the pinch of sorrow so deep that you could lose yourself in them, diverted her course. She returned to the bridge, where Cid sat against panel, looking out at their friend.

"What do you think's wrong with him, Cid?"

"Fuck if I know. But I ain't never seen him like this. It's like he's snapped."

Cid's wife nodded.

"I've known Red for 3 years. Not one time have I seen him growl at you at Rocket Town."

Cid shook his head, unconsciously putting a cigarette to his mouth, before a slap on his hand brought him back out of thought.

"All those times he helped me out, he's become my best buddy. He's pulled me back from saying or doing something stupid more times then I can remember. He was even a laugh one time in a hundred. But I don't think I can help him here. I don't know how." The steely deck, although booming with noise as it's crew adjusted the rudder slightly, fine-tuned the engine, chatted about the mark being left on the deck by Red's tail and, drawing straws to see who would clean up the latest patch of vomit from a passenger who really shouldn't be flying, still seemed lonely and quiet to both Shera and Cid.

"He's been out there for 4 hours now. Go talk to him, Cid."

"After what he said to me in Rocket Town.

FLASHBACK

"_DAMNIT, CID! I need a trip to Midgar right now! If you don't do this one favour for me, after all the times I've sacrificed MY time for you, I'm gonna show you the real meaning of the term "Hurts like a bitch!""_

Suffice to say, Cid would not quite of enjoyed forgiving Red for that, but he had been right. The creature had effortlessly pointed out things wrong with certain parts of the Shera that would have taken Cid a few weeks to discover. The Airship ran smoother then a shined quartz because of him. And he also owed him his marriage.

Cid nodded his head, sighing.

He quickly made his way through the ship to the open-air prow. Red was just as undoubting and proud as ever. His mane was swept back by the breeze.

"Red." Cid muttered, sitting himself down cross-legged beside him. He only grunted his assent.

"What's wrong with ya, Red? It's like you're here but gone, y'know? What happened between now and Bugenhagen's funeral?"

Red said nothing. He only turned towards Cid, looked back towards Midgar and breath a heavy sigh.

"Cid. Have you ever had something in your heart so pure and untouchable, that it kept you going in the darkest of times. It reminded you, in the pitch of bitter night, that the sun will soon glance over the horizon, before bathing your world once again in light?"

"Who the hell d'ya think Shera is!" Cid couldn't help but at a touch of bitterness to his tone.

"Mine was honour and pride. Pride in my mother and most of all, my father. They both died to protect the Canyon. They are an inspiration from my past that I never knew. The only thing I ever wanted was to be like them. My honour stopped me from giving up. It stopped me from acting beneath myself, as something my parents wouldn't have been proud of. Now, I have lost my pride."

Cid seemed taken aback. He had seen the Statue of Seto, heard the tale. Red did indeed take great pride in it, showing it to any who dared brave the Gi Caverns. But here…

"How Red?"

"Cid, I may tell you when this is ended, but until then all you should know is that my heart is no longer made of stone."


	3. Chapter 3: Rage and Retribution

**Chapter 3: Rage and Retribution**

**Firstly, thanks to Shade the Raven for my first ever review.**

**I'm going to sate my own thirst for flashbacks with this chapter.**

The beautiful skies, once so black, now so blue they threatened to pierce the eye of even one of Red's kind with their beauty. For the first time, the skies refused to be tainted by the ehb of a used-Mako energy. It was something that might have warmed the heart of Nanaki, had he cared.

Leaping from the prow of the airship as acrobatically as any feline or canine. He trotted away from the airship towards Edge City. His steps were slim and quick.

Cid shook his head. Red wasn't there anymore. It was like he had snapped. No, broken.

_Nanaki brought down his claw in a scything motion, shattering the man's arm in a single blow. He looked up, his one good eye singling out another opponent. The bandit under him writhed in pain. Another swipe at his head took away his life. All around, he could see the caravan trying to fight back the former-Shinra soldiers. It wasn't working. Many of their adversaries were armed and all were trained. The philosophers and meteorologists who had set out from Costa Del Sol were meant to observe the sky and life, not suffer like this. The very thought of such people suffering his way of life brought a slight anger to Red._

_He leapt from the body to slam into his next opponent, using his shoulders and the velocity to take the man of his feet. A flick of his seraph-clad tail send a lightning bolt streaking towards the man. A leap and twist sent another shinran clad in blue-tinted armour back to the Life stream._

_'Damnit to hell.'_

_4 Men with insensibly large swords now faced the Wolf. It looked as if they had discovered he was the only one who stood a challenge. In Red's eye ,he was a devil from the wilds, a strike of fire that blinded the eyes and boiled the soul._

_Red ducked back into a fighting crouch. He knew those eyes. Former SOLDIER. It made no difference. A flash of scarlet and 2 fell to the ground, claw marks marring their faces horribly. The other two backed into a circle, but Red struck from nowhere, using the confusion of a large-scale raid to pounce from where previously there had been two men in a struggle over a gun._

_Before his last two opponents struck the ground, he was already digging his tail into the eye of another man, incinerating the inside of his head._

_Now, it seemed, the caravan of 62 Learned man had been subdued. They were all now circling Red. A slight chuckle crossed the face of Nanaki. 40 maybe 50 men against him. He was a Guardian of Cosmo Canyon. They were merely Shinran Grunts and only 3rd Class SOLDIERS._

_They came at him like a plague of locust, about 4 or 5 at once. He side-stepped the first downward blow of a sword, before rearing up on his hind legs and bringing his razor-sharp claw upward across the face of his attacker. Two more blades. His tail, quick as death, parried both in one smooth movement, before sending itself spiking into an enemy's face with the speed of quick silver._

_A few more similar attacks and incidents, and the shinrans had realised that it was probably easier to take their spoils and run. But as Red let down his steely guard, he took an unlikely shot to his shoulder. It was almost unnoticeable, the Wolf simply shrugging it off, leaping across the ground to check on the few survivors of the attack._

_But, then, like a shock realisation, his limbs were not his at all. They fell, lifeless…Red could not feel a thing. The fear was plain in his eyes as darkness descended._

_Nanaki was immobilised for 2 months. The poison seeped through him, a neurotoxin, and tore at everything. Knives stabbed him, needles pressed against his head, and he constantly felt as if he consumed rotten meat._

_He looked up at the sky everyday, Grandfather doing all a dying man could to ease the suffering of a creature completely immobile._

_The most keenly remembered image of that torturous period was a month in. The toxin had reached the prime of it's effect, rendering most motor functions dead, and making Red spasm with pain every few minutes, be it daggers to his skull, or needles to his back._

_He was lying on the top of Grandfather's observatory, with Cid and Tifa tending to him…_

_It was the day he finally decided to stop being weak. He looked at himself. This was all because he had none of his father's honour, his stoic sensibility, his indescribable battle-rage. The ability to hold up an entire tribe alone._

_"Cid. Tifa."_

_"Yea'?"_

_"What do you need, Red?"_

_The Son of Seto lifted his paw for the first time in 2 weeks._

_"Get me a planet-damned pork chop."_

He changed after that. He became bitter, angry and rarely light. He rarely laughed and constantly responded with bitter, albeit witty, comments. But he was still there, in essence. He still brought wise council and enthusiastic help when needed. Yes, the visits to Cosmo Canyon became rarer, but Cloud often asked him to help out with deliveries to Nibel or Corel, Barret made him check up on any oil sources., and he often helped out generally. He was not sad ,he was just far more proud. His greatest pleasure was bringing down Grand Horns out in the wastelands.

Then Seto disappeared. And anger overwhelmed him. As he strolled from the newly-build Aeroport, something he had helped design, a snarl was stamped on his face. Cid ran to catch up to him in his incredibly comical run, and suddenly even that now annoyed Red.

"Damnit, Cid, if you don't stop running like that I'm gonna put you in a wheelchair!" He didn't ever turn around to say it. He knew that his snappy, cynical tone would stop Cid dead in his tracks. Red didn't care.

Up ahead, he saw Reeve. The tall man was once again dressed in a basalt-black suit, that shined with the hundreds of times it had been pressed. Elena stood next to him, her golden, silky hair flowing behind her like a wedding train. Her magnificent marble dress was supremely cut to fit her figure. The only thing passing through Red's mind was that if they didn't wipe the patronising smiles off their faces he was going to do to them what he had done to Hojo.

"Red, how nice to see you. How have you been?"

"Cut the crap, Reeve. I'm not here to congratulate you on your wedding that you missed my Grandfather's funeral 'preparing' for. I'm here to ask questions. If you don't give me my answers I'll shove my paw so far up your ass you'll have my claws for teeth."

Reeve widened his eyes in shocks, while Elena drew her hand to her mouth as it flopped open.

Cid, once again arriving at the worst time, with Shera not far behind, could only shrug at their quizzical glances to him.

"Damnit, I ain't got all day, you bureaucratic, spying prat!" Seeing a beast, bristling with rage, with a blinded eye, teeth the size of your fingers and claws bigger then your spread hand, with a very sharp instrument at the end of his tail, isn't something most men look forward too. Couple that with threats and a look in the beast's eye that says it fully intends to carry them out, and you've got a very nervous man.

"Of course, Red." He gulped.

"Right this way."

They exited out of the aeroport through a small building, who's job it was to register all flights and spaces. There was 3 people, 2 of which sat at desk with small piles of paper, signing and counter-signing, behind a large counter, where stood a pretty young red-headed lady with a register and pen in front of her.

"Good afternoon, please sig-"

"It's your fucking ship, Cid. You stay here and sign in. Then go find Cloud and Tifa, tell them I'll be paying them a visit." Red's voice was thick with authority that few knew he had. His heart may have broken, but his steel was still there.

"And Reeve, you best have a car or something because I'm not walking all the way to your pathetic imitation of Shinra HQ."

Reeve boiled over at this. Calling the WRO another Shinra was just too far, Elena, took a step back, taking hold of her Husband's arm.

"RED! If you think you can walk in here, insult and threaten me and my Wife, then humiliate my organisation, then you are seriously deranged."

Have you ever caught that look in another man's, or in this case, beast's eye that says if you say another goddamned word he's going to do everything in his, or her, power to kill you. Now imagine that a thousand times worse.

"Your life or your pride, Reeve." Red snarled, with more ferocity then a hundred of the old Red could've mustered.

They continued to stride out onto the street, where a rather spiffy car was waiting. Reeve motioned to the driver.

"Elena, get in the front seat." Reeve said quickly. Red didn't bat an eyelid.

"I can take your friend. He's nothing more then an angry pup." Elena's pride was sometimes impossible to diminish.

"Elena, my love. That Red is the Red that killed an Undead Warlord, Gi Nittak, that was 6 times his size and 4 times stronger. He would not hesitate to hurt us both if we get in his way." The former-Turk turned red at her husband's firm rebuke, but got into the passenger seat at the front.

Reeve grudgingly got into the backseat. Red was poised at the far right, staring out the window. The Head of the WRO took a deep sigh as he got into his own car, that suddenly seemed not his at all.

**Had a bit of fun with Red this time. Expect far more snappy comments and a very nasty encounter in the next chapter.**


End file.
